The present disclosure relates to a gas turbine engine and, more particularly, to a fuel manifold therefor.
Gas turbine engines, such as those that power modern commercial and military aircraft, include a compressor section to pressurize a supply of air, a combustor section to burn a hydrocarbon fuel in the presence of the pressurized air, and a turbine section to extract energy from the resultant combustion gases and generate thrust.
A fuel supply system is mounted around the combustor section and generally includes a multiple of circumferentially distributed fuel injectors that axially project into a combustion chamber to supply fuel thereto. The multiple of circumferentially distributed fuel injectors are connected to multiple fuel supply manifolds that deliver fuel to the fuel injectors. There is typically one fuel supply manifold for each stage, thus, each fuel injector may have multiple fuel supply connections from multiple fuel supply manifolds.
The fuel supply system is a relatively complex assembly of formed tubes which are sequentially cut, measured, assembled, then welded to fit around the combustor section from fuel injector to fuel injector for that particular fuel injector distribution. Other configurations are manufactured in multiple segments for each of primary and secondary manifolds which may complicate assembly to the combustor section. Although effective, fuel supply systems are relatively complicated to manufacture and heavy in weight.